Defense Attorneys Urge Life Sentence for Harrel Braddy in Everglades Murder Case
Defense attorneys for Harrel Braddy have formally requested a life sentence rather than the death penalty for the 76-year-old man convicted of leaving a 5-year-old girl to die in the Florida Everglades. During closing arguments at the resentencing trial in Miami, legal counsel Carmen Vizcaino and Khurrum Wahid argued that Braddy’s advanced age and deteriorating health ensure he will be punished sufficiently by dying in prison.
“He will be punished,” Vizcaino told the jury. “Mr. Braddy will die behind bars. There is no question about that. The question before you today is whether he will die behind bars of natural causes or be executed.” The defense team emphasized that Braddy suffers from throat cancer, brain damage, and nerve damage, portraying him as a frail man who has been a “model prisoner” during his decades of incarceration. They urged jurors to consider his behavior behind bars and his medical condition as mitigating factors that warrant a life sentence.
Prosecutors strongly objected to the plea for leniency, focusing on the brutality of the 1998 crime. Prosecutor Abbe Rifkin argued that the death penalty is the only appropriate sentence for the suffering inflicted on Quatisha Maycock. “Torture, fear, dread and a lifetime of pain for the loved ones she left behind,” Rifkin stated, describing the terror the child must have felt. The state contended that Braddy showed no mercy when he abandoned the injured girl in the dark swamp waters, where she was eventually mauled by alligators.
The case stems from a violent kidnapping in November 1998. Braddy abducted Shandelle Maycock and her daughter, Quatisha, from their home. After choking and beating the mother and leaving her for dead, he drove the 5-year-old to Alligator Alley and dumped her into a canal. Medical examiners determined the child was alive when she was placed in the water. Braddy was originally sentenced to death in 2007, but the sentence was vacated following changes to Florida’s death penalty laws, necessitating this new sentencing phase.
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